Nitrate Hogging Plants
- Thread starter Roan Art
- Start date
Trying to figure out who is eating all my nitrates! I'm sick of dosing dosing dosing KNO3. ARGH! I dose 30ppm and it's GONE in 3 days easy. If I push the CO2 up, they eat even MORE!pl*co said:
Hey, if I feed the roots heavier, would that cut them back on the nitrates, do you think? More fert tabs in the substrate?
Hrm hrm.
Roan
Here is an interesting, albeit high level, article about nitrate uptake. You might want to jump down to the sections beginning with "Discussion". After reading it, though the discussion is more about the relationship between nitrate and water, I wondered if it would be only a matter of adjusting the amount of light your plants are receiving. There were a few statements higher up in the content that alluded to light adjustment.
http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/50/334/613.pdf
[Edit:] Isn't what you describe normal for a heavily planted tank?
http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/50/334/613.pdf
[Edit:] Isn't what you describe normal for a heavily planted tank?
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I found out that trying to read that gave me a severe headache 
Seriously -- VROOOOOOOOOOOOOM! -- right over my head for the most part.
Yah, I'm sure that much nitrate is normal for a heavy planted tank. The problem is trying to beat down the phosphates at the same time.
Out of my tap they are 2.0+, to match that in nitrates it's 20ppm, so with my plants sucking back 10ppm a day, I would have to dose at 10ppm a DAY to keep up with the phosphate amount. No way am I going to sock three days worth -- 50ppm -- in my tank at one time.
I'm trying a new tactic atm. Trying to bring the phosphates in the tank down somewhat -- to at least 1.0 -- which should help a lot and lessen the amount of nitrates I need to keep a balance. I started doing this four day ago and the brown ick has been decreasing rapidly.
Today I sheared off all the leaves that had brown algae on them and noticed some nice GREEN algae forming on the rocks and driftwood. Nice algae. I like algae in a tank, GREEN algae. I think it makes it more natural. I don't even mind beard algae if it's just light fuzz. I have some beard in all my tanks (iron is .2 out of the tap) and it's not a biggie at all.
All the new leaves I saw had no brown on them. Just the old ones. Tank looks like it had a fight with a lawn mower
Roan
Seriously -- VROOOOOOOOOOOOOM! -- right over my head for the most part.
Yah, I'm sure that much nitrate is normal for a heavy planted tank. The problem is trying to beat down the phosphates at the same time.
Out of my tap they are 2.0+, to match that in nitrates it's 20ppm, so with my plants sucking back 10ppm a day, I would have to dose at 10ppm a DAY to keep up with the phosphate amount. No way am I going to sock three days worth -- 50ppm -- in my tank at one time.
I'm trying a new tactic atm. Trying to bring the phosphates in the tank down somewhat -- to at least 1.0 -- which should help a lot and lessen the amount of nitrates I need to keep a balance. I started doing this four day ago and the brown ick has been decreasing rapidly.
Today I sheared off all the leaves that had brown algae on them and noticed some nice GREEN algae forming on the rocks and driftwood. Nice algae. I like algae in a tank, GREEN algae. I think it makes it more natural. I don't even mind beard algae if it's just light fuzz. I have some beard in all my tanks (iron is .2 out of the tap) and it's not a biggie at all.
All the new leaves I saw had no brown on them. Just the old ones. Tank looks like it had a fight with a lawn mower
Roan
RA - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. My office tank got high phosphate tap water (~2-3ppm, not very consistent), and I kept the nitrate about 10-15ppm. I had no alage issues once the tank matured a bit. But, I did not have very high light - 160W T12 over a 55, 10 hours per day. If you do have high light (>3 WPG) and C02 (=30ppm), you only have to keep the nitrate from being limited and you should be good. Nitrate supplement 2-3x weekly should do the job.
The 10:1 proportions are a rough rule of thumb. I think that Tom Barr says that the reality is something like 7.xx:1, so this is not a hypercritcal issue. The whole trick with EI seems to be not let the vascular plants go limited and slow down, then you can get problems. A bit of excess of one nutrient is not a make/break issue. Plants hitting the wall on a macro can be.
The 10:1 proportions are a rough rule of thumb. I think that Tom Barr says that the reality is something like 7.xx:1, so this is not a hypercritcal issue. The whole trick with EI seems to be not let the vascular plants go limited and slow down, then you can get problems. A bit of excess of one nutrient is not a make/break issue. Plants hitting the wall on a macro can be.
Roan Art said:I found out that trying to read that gave me a severe headache
Seriously -- VROOOOOOOOOOOOOM! -- right over my head for the most part.
All the new leaves I saw had no brown on them. Just the old ones. Tank looks like it had a fight with a lawn mower
Roan
Me too. I didn't last long before jumping down to the discussion. The one thing that made sense and was easy to accomplish was to back off on the amount of light a bit, i.e., limit one of the requirements. Glad your tank is shaping back up.
Okay, I'll try that. Just make sure there are nitrates available and not worry about where the phosphates are exactly.RTR said:
I also think you hit the nail on the head with one statement, RTR: "once the tank matured a bit". I need to be patient
Okay. Done deal. I'll just make sure there are always nitrates avail and see how it swings.
I was always taught that, with most plants, pruning off dead or dying leaves allows the plant to focus more on the healthy ones. That was my premise for doing the prune job. Today I have noticed much heavier pearling and lots of newer growth in almost every plant. So, is what I was taught really true and does it apply to aquatic plants as well? It seems to, but I want other opinions.
Roan
Slowlypl*co said:
I definitely won the war, but I still have to get the enemy out of the occupation zones 
Roan
